Residential Workshop on Approaches to Socio-Economic Recovery from COVID-19
Program Note
Background
The worldwide COVID-19 health impact and its related containment measures have caused sharp decline in economic activity, jobs and livelihoods losses and negative repercussion on the quality of health, education, and value-chain related services. It has disproportionately affected the most vulnerable population such as children, elderly, persons with disabilities, migrants and refugees and exacerbated inequalities in human development. The Global COVID Gender Response Tracker1 developed by UN Women and UNDP in 2020, has found that, while women have been at the center of global COVID-19 response efforts, they have been significantly underrepresented in meaningfully participating in key COVID-19 decisionmaking and governance worldwide. Women’s exclusion from COVID-19 planning and decisionmaking leaves governments ill-equipped to respond effectively to the gendered social and economic fallout of the pandemic. As a result of the extensive socio-economic effects, the pandemic has negatively impacted hard-won development gains of the 2030 Agenda, such as SDG 1 (no poverty), 2 (zero hunger), 3 (good health and well-being), 4 (education) 5 (gender equality), 8 (decent work and economic growth) and 10 (reduced inequalities).
The pandemic is also inextricably intertwined with global environmental issues such as biodiversity loss, climate change, air and water pollution, and waste management, both in terms of its origin and the implications for environmental outcomes and the future well-being of societies around the world. In terms of its origin, COVID-19 is supposedly a zoonotic disease, a disease passed from animals to humans. As pressures on natural ecosystems and wildlife intensify, channels of viral outbreak have accelerated in recent years, as also seen in outbreaks of other zoonotic diseases such as Ebola, SARS and MERS in recent years. More than ever, the ability to prevent outbreaks depends on our ability to maintain healthy ecosystems and avoid the blurring of ecological boundaries. In terms of the implications of the pandemic on the environment, as economic activities had to be curtailed due to healthrelated restrictions, environmental issues took a backseat across the world. As an example, the use of packaging exploded around the world as people started to order everything from food take-out to other household goods online. Many governments which were committed to take strong action on single use plastic had to either stop enforcing the legislations or delay their introductions. During 2020, the lockdowns and decline in economic activity reduced overall plastics use by about 2% from 2019 levels, mostly for large-scale industrial sectors such as motor vehicles, and construction. But overall, this reduction was substantially smaller than the decline in total economic activity. At the same time, the use of medical and protective equipment as well as single-use plastics increased considerably during the pandemic, and exacerbated plastic littering, the build-up of which will continue for decades to come. Relative to 2019, global plastics use increased by 0.3 Mt in 2020 in the health and social work sector, and by 0.2 Mt in the pharmaceuticals sector. Plastics use for face masks is estimated to represent 300 kilotons in 2020 linked to the production of some 126 billion masks. In other sectors like food services and retail, the shift towards take-away, food delivery and ecommerce all increased demand for plastic packaging (OECD, 2022).
Countries around the world are being forced to confront the challenges of managing compound risks from the COVID-19 pandemic and natural hazards such as, cyclones in India and the Pacific, floods in Japan and Vietnam, and heatwaves in the United States and Europe, among many others. In fact, climate-related hazards threaten to exploit many of the same vulnerabilities, amplifying disaster risk and its potential impacts as the pandemic (IRP, 2020).
In response, ccountries have implemented post COVID recovery and stimulus packages around the world; but the focus remains on livelihoods and employment creation, and environment is once again not a priority. For example, green recovery measures are still a small component of total COVID-19 spending (only 21% of recovery spending, or only around 4% of the USD 17 trillion rescue and recovery spending combined). Significant funds are still allocated to measures with likely environmentally negative and mixed impacts (OECD, 2022). However, the recovery plans that governments are putting in place have the potential to create a recovery that is both green and inclusive. Such a recovery can be defined by its potential to create opportunities for income, jobs and growth, and at the same time accelerate action on medium and long-term environmental goals, both national and global. Such action will significantly enhance the resilience of economies and societies in the face of accelerating environmental challenges due to strengthening feedback loops and the increasing likelihood of cascading tipping points. Importantly, putting people at the centre of green recovery plans can lay the foundations for sustainable wellbeing. At a global scale, solidarity and collaboration are required to address the exposed systemic risks and underlying vulnerabilities in today’s connected societies.
Priority Four of the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction (SFDRR) 2015- 2030 calls on governments to build back better in recovery from disasters. It represents a global consensus view that recovery presents an opportunity to not only restore what was lost, but to build greater resilience and even to make progress across the development sphere. Importantly, it also presents an opportunity to reduce disaster risk as societies recover, rebuild, and rehabilitate.
Objective of the Workshop
The objective of the workshop is to discuss the systematic and scientific approaches for promoting green and sustainable recovery in the response to Covid-19. The workshop also aims to highlight the critical role of green infrastructure in supporting economic growth and livelihoods, while safeguarding the Paris Agreement targets.
Course pedagogy
The training will be held in person, facilitated by trainers from UNDP and SAARC Disaster Management Centre (IU), joined by guest speakers from partner institutes. The training will include presentations, group exercises, discussions, and field visits.
Targeted participants (3 participants from each Member States)
This workshop aims to engage 3 Senior Officers from Ministries (especially, health, education, tourism, industry and commerce, employment and livelihoods, gender, social protection) from each Member States dealing with Disaster Risk Management, Disaster Response; National Disaster Management Organizations (NDMOs) from all the SAARC Member States.
Organizers
The workshop will be organized by SDMC (IU) with support from United Nations Development Program (UNDP) is conducting a 4-day Residential Workshop on "Approaches to Socio- Economic Recovery from COVID-19" from 1-4 March 2023 for disaster risk reduction and recovery practitioners from the SAARC Member States.
About SAARC Disaster Management Centre (IU)
SAARC Disaster Management Centre (SDMC-IU) has been set up at Gujarat Institute of Disaster Management (GIDM) Campus, Gandhinagar, Gujarat, India. SDMC (IU) is expectedto serve SAARC Member States in disaster management initiatives. Since its operations at GIDM Campus, SDMC (IU), has conducted 21 residential capacity building programs and 6 webinars, wherein about 850 officials from the Member States were oriented, sensitized and trained in collaboration with more than 190 domain experts hailing from various regional and global organisations
Date & Venue
The workshop will be organized in the Seminar Hall of SDMC (IU), Gandhinagar, in Gujarat, India. The dates of the workshop are 01st to 04th March, 2023.